View full size"Head of Christ," c. 1648 1650 by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Dutch, is a part of the "Heads of Christ" series shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Oct. 30.If you were painting the face of Jesus in Rembrandt’s time — the 17th century — you had three sources to turn to: the Veil of Veronica, the Mandylion of Edessa and the Lentulus Letters.
The two faint facial images and the written description seemed to portray Jesus as almost resembling a Greek god.
These three sources were considered to be sacred and, therefore, artists could use them as guides in drawing Jesus’ face.
But Rembrandt decided to dispute this notion. And instead, he painted a more realistic-looking Jesus.
“What Rembrandt did was challenge this tradition and invent a truly human Jesus,” said Lloyd DeWitt, former associate curator of European Painting Before 1900 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. “He looked for a living model, someone who was actually Jewish.”
Rembrandt questioned the traditional light-haired model of Jesus and wondered what he really could’ve looked like.
“Heads of Christ,” a series of paintings of a single model — one historians believe to be Jewish — is the centerpiece of an exhibit, “Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus,” open at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Oct. 30.
These portraits of a “true” Jesus were “experiments, a part of Rembrandt’s artistic process,” DeWitt said.
View full size"Head of Christ," c. 1648 56. Attributed to Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn and Studio, Dutch.This is the first Rembrandt exhibition in Philadelphia since 1932, said Timothy Rub, director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, when a private collection of prints was shown there.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said.
The Dutch master, known for his masterful paintings as well as prints, lived a troubled life. He lost his beloved wife, Saskia Van Uylenburgh, who probably died of tuberculosis, in 1642. Of his five children, three died, and his remaining son Titus, died a year before the artist. Rembrandt also went bankrupt in 1656, separating him from his own home and personal art collection.
So turning to biblical themes in his artwork seemed natural. He was fascinated with the Bible and his favorite protagonist, Jesus Christ, Rub said.
“There is a shift in his works in the late 1640s,” Rub said.
This shift can be seen in Rembrandt’s 1648 piece — which was recently cleaned at the Louvre — a new version of his 1628 painting, “Supper at Emmaus.” The original painting featured Jesus in silhouette, but in the new painting, Jesus’ face — clearly shown — is full of emotion.
“Rembrandt shows what can’t be shown. He was great at showing psychology. He keeps refining this skill throughout his career,” said DeWitt.
Rembrandt lived in Amsterdam alongside a growing Jewish community, often sketching people he saw on his street.
“He doesn’t show beggars in an awful way. He shows them in a sympathetic way,” DeWitt said.
View full size"Head of Christ," c. 1648 54. Attributed to Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Dutch.In fact, DeWitt added, “one of the people he draws seems to be the same young man that shows up in his ‘Heads of Christ’ series.” But it is not known who the young man is, he said.
Two of the “Heads of Christ” paintings hung in Rembrandt’s bedroom and a third, called “Head of Christ, from life,” was found in a bin in Rembrandt’s studio.
The exhibit reunites seven of the paintings in the “Heads of Christ” series. Three are being shown for the first time in the U.S. The exhibit also features more than 50 related paintings, prints and drawings by Rembrandt van Rijn and his students.
If you go:
“Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus” is open at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, and runs through Oct. 30. Tickets to the exhibit are timed and include a complimentary audio tour. Tickets are $25 for adults, $23 for seniors, $20 for students and youth (13 to 18), $12 for children (5 to 12), children 4 and under are free.
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